Second Chances and First Tries
by DoraeAzure
Summary: Luna finds an injured animal, and takes it home to do what she can to heal it.  animagus fic   One-shot, written for Luna Fest.


**Disclaimer:** All Harry Potter characters, objects, settings, and plots are the property of J.K. Rowling. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise associated with Harry potter. No copyright infringement is intended and no money is being made from the writing of this fanfiction.

**Notes:** Written for Luna Fest (Prompt version). I loved this prompt, and I had a very specific idea of where I wanted this to go when I first started out, but it ended up somewhere completely different and about thirteen pages longer than originally intended. I've decided I rather like it anyway; I hope you all find it enjoyable as well.

**Prompt: **Luna finds an injured animal, and takes it home to do what she can to heal it. (animagus fic)

**Second Chances and First Tries**

When Dumbledore first proposed "The Plan," Severus Snape knew he would not survive the war against Voldemort. The Plan was twisted. The Plan was _insane_ and its creator was equally mad for ever thinking it up. The stress of executing The Plan was likely to kill him on all its own, Snape thought bitterly, but even if he somehow survived the strain of carrying out Dumbledore's wishes, and even if Voldemort didn't kill him in the process, then Harry Potter surely would when everything else was said and done.

Snape never thought about what he would do after the war because he never thought that he would see it.

But on that fateful day, at the battle for Hogwarts, when he finally got to close his eyes and rest, finally escape from war and cruelty and Dumbledore's mad plans, finally leave his _miserable_ life behind, he opened his eyes after his death not to any sort of afterlife, as he had expected, but to a place he hadn't seen in years and years: platform 9 ¾. And who should be sitting there waiting for him but the twisted old man himself, complete with twinkly eyes and flashing half moon glasses and a secretive little smile.

Snape held out some hope that he was only hallucinating but when that bearded old man opened his mouth and said, "Severus, my dear, dear boy, come, sit beside me." Snape's heart (what was left of it) sank in his chest. Not even in a hallucination would he be forced to sit down and converse with the man he'd devoted his life to and then killed. Because whatever else could be said of Snape, whatever else might be true of him, Snape had only ever loved two people: Lily Evans and Albus Dumbledore. Facing the man, talking to him, after killing him as he had was the height of cruelty.

So when Snape sat down on a bench beside his mentor—his savior in many ways—he was paying more attention to his guilt and anguish than to what the old man was saying. Thus when Dumbledore offered him a chance to go back and "finish" his life, Snape didn't really understand what he meant. Snape's life was over. All the i's were dotted, all the t's were crossed, all the boxes were checked; what could Dumbledore possibly mean?

Just to be sure, Snape took a second to review his actions and make sure he'd completed all the tasks required of him. Had he: killed his mentor in cold blood? Check. Taken over Hogwarts and terrorized children for a year to cement his loyalty in the mind of an evil dark overlord? Check. Passed on vital, war-winning information to the future boy savior of the wizarding world, who also happened to be the son of his greatest love and his second greatest enemy? Check. Said good-bye to the memory of Lily Evans and died at last? Check.

Yes, Snape was certain his life was complete. So what was the old man rambling on about?

"What _are _you rambling on about?" he asked, exasperated.

Dumbledore paused, placed a hand on his shoulder. "You have a choice, Severus. You can pass on into the afterlife. You've lead a difficult life, my boy, you certainly deserve it. No one would blame you for choosing to move on. But you are an extremely intelligent and talented man, Severus. There is much you can still do with your life, much good you can do for the world, should you choose to accept the burden of life once more."

"Because I did so much good the first time around." Snape stated, voice full of bitterness and self-loathing.

"You made mistakes, Severus, but we all do. You dedicated your life for a very short time to an evil madman and then self-sacrificially dedicated the rest of your life to overthrowing him. I sent a child to live in a home without love, manipulated that child's life for six years, caused him to fall into unimaginable danger again and again, left him with a nearly impossible quest, and to top it all off, have given him the choice of allowing himself to die or forfeiting the wizarding world to Voldemort. Not to mention all that I have put _you_ through. Which of us has committed the greater wrong, I wonder?"

Snape glared at Dumbledore. Kind blue eyes twinkled back at him. Snape clenched his teeth.

"I deserve to rest in peace!"

"Yes, you certainly do."

"Then why are you doing this to me? Haven't I done enough?"

"Severus, I am merely offering you a choice. No one can or will think less of you, regardless of the option you choose."

Snape rubbed his temples. He couldn't imagine what he'd done to deserve this. Okay, he'd tortured and killed some people, signed his soul over to the Dark Lord, and caused the death of his One True Love, but he still didn't think the crime fit this particular punishment. He loved Dumbledore like a father (or a grandfather. Or a really, really crazy, ancient uncle), but if there was one thing he'd enjoyed about the last year, it was freedom from interfering old men who always know best.

And no matter how kind and gentle the man's voice, no matter how harmless he sounded, no matter how casual he was about laying out Snape's choices, Snape knew exactly what Dumbledore thought was best in this situation. Never mind that that wasn't at all what _Snape_ wanted. The very idea of going back made Snape feel a little sick. But whatever else he might be, Snape was not a coward, and after everything Snape had done for Dumbledore, he wasn't going to let that doddering old man make him into one here at the very end.

"Fine." It was useless to protest anyway. He always ended up doing what Dumbledore wanted eventually. Might as well get it over with.

Which is how Snape found himself in the middle of the Shrieking Shack with a magically healed snake bite, blood-covered clothes, and a brand new life.

What the old man had failed to mention was what Snape should _do_ with his new life. He had once lived for the memory of Lily Evans but he'd already said good-bye to Lily. Not to mention the fact that everyone thought he was dead and were probably grateful for it, seeing as how most everyone thought him a lying, murdering traitor. So how was he to accomplish…whatever it was he was supposed to accomplish?

So, cursing interfering, doddering old men, Snape snuck back to his house on Spinner's End. It was cramped and tiny, and it wasn't safe, but it was full of his books and his other belongings and he wanted to retrieve them. He needed to find a quiet, secluded place to live but he wasn't about to do so without his possessions. Especially the books. He had nothing better to do; he might as well spend his time reading.

Eventually, Snape found a tiny abandoned cottage deep in a Scottish forest and made himself at home. It had everything he wanted: quiet, privacy, bookshelves in every room, and a basement plenty big enough for a respectable potions lab. He soon discovered that the soil behind his little cottage was rich in nutrients, perfect for growing all the ingredients necessary for brewing that couldn't readily be found in the forest around him, and set about creating the garden he'd always wanted.

But once he had cleared the space for his garden and planted the various seeds and cuttings he needed, he didn't really know what to do with himself.

Out of boredom, Snape eventually decided to study animagus transfiguration. It was time consuming but he had nothing but time on his hands. It was said to be difficult but if Potter, Black, even Pettigrew, could do it, it should be a breeze for him (a far superior wizard). Besides, he'd always wanted to learn, he just hadn't wanted to give McGonagall the satisfaction of showing interest in her pet subject.

After long hours of study, practice, study, and more practice, he reached the point where he knew, knew, that his next attempt would be the last. With that thought in mind, he took himself out into the forest for his final transformation.

That was how he found himself floundering on the forest floor, pine needles tangled in his dark fur as he struggled to right himself in spite of what felt like a broken bone. Whatever he was, he was small, furry, and, apparently, easy prey. Almost as soon as his transformation was finished, a fox had tried to eat him for dinner. If he hadn't gotten lucky in his flailing and managed to poke it in the eye, he'd be dead. Again. As it stood, he was likely to be dinner for the next toothy thing that came along, crippled as he was. Especially since he couldn't seem to transform back into his human self and he could barely see; everything was so bright!

After awhile, when he had exhausted himself to the point of dozing, curled up between the roots of a tree, he heard a voice. It was soft and soothing and somewhat familiar. Female.

"Oh, you poor thing, you're injured. Here, let me just…there. That's better, isn't it?"

It was. She'd wrapped something around him, something warm and soft. But then she tried to pick him up, and that hurt! He struggled for freedom, but wrapped up as he was, there was no escape.

"There, there now," said the voice. "It'll be alright. I know it hurts but it's just a broken wing, and that's easily fixed. I'd just heal it now, but I don't think you'd be still long enough for me to look at it here. Besides, that wouldn't much help with your wrackspurt problem would it?"

Merlin help him, he'd been taken captive by Luna Lovegood. For the first time in many years, Snape sincerely wanted to cry. Why did he fight so hard to keep that fox from eating him? Or better yet, why hadn't he told that interfering old man to take his offer and stuff it? Even if it meant listening to Dumbledore natter on for eternity, it had to be better than this.

"Come on, little bat. Just come along home with me and I'll make everything better."

Well that was just the icing on the cake. He was a _bat_. And he was helpless in the hands of Luna Lovegood. Snape wanted to groan. His last thought before he passed out from pain and exhaustion was that somewhere up there that interfering old man was laughing behind his stupid half-moon glasses.

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Luna Lovegood was on an adventure. Luna was almost always on some adventure or other because after all, what was more adventurous than life itself? But this was more than just an adventure, it was a Quest.

Luna was hunting wrackspurts.

It was a dangerous pastime, wrackspurt hunting, but Luna was used to danger. She'd been a member of Dumbledore's Army and she'd fought in various battles against Death Eaters since she was in her fourth year. She'd survived living under the Carrows' thumbs, and Snape's too, although Harry had since told her that he'd only been pretending to be evil. She'd survived being held prisoner at Malfoy Manor. She'd fought in the Battle of Hogwarts. There was no danger in the world that gave Luna pause after all that.

Wrackspurt hunting was also a bit on the expensive side, but that's what jobs were for. Luna's father had never been quite the same after the war—he just couldn't seem to forgive himself for his actions, even though he'd done it to protect her. These days he had a bit of trouble focusing and he still cringed at the mere mention of Harry's name. Luna had started helping her father out in the Quibbler office soon after she'd left Hogwarts, and she was all but running it now. For the most part she enjoyed her new responsibilities, but she didn't get to contribute articles of her own as often as she would have liked and she missed it. Luna had always enjoyed writing. But she did still get to take occasional trips, like this one, to do research on her pet projects, which usually resulted in an article or two. This particular trip was just about over but she was beginning to think she would need to take one more before she'd have enough information to write a comprehensive article on wrackspurt behavior.

Luna was still contemplating how to arrange time to make another trip to this lovely, wrackspurt infested forest before the end of wrackspurt hollowing season (_hollowing season: the time of year in which wrackspurts choose an ear to float into, _Luna thought to herself. _Usually the victim of a hollowing will experience a fuzzy sensation in the brain on a regular basis for a period of several weeks before the wrackspurt leaves to begin nesting_) that she heard something rustling and maybe squeaking a bit near her left foot. When she looked down she could see there was something furry wiggling weakly between the roots of a nearby tree.

"Hello there," she murmured, and knelt to examine the creature. It was odd looking, with huge blinking eyes, fuzz in odd places, and bits of…leather? stuck here and there. It was also obviously injured. One of the leathery bits was propped at an odd angle and it was wheezing in a distressed manner.

"Oh, you poor thing, you're injured. Here, let me just…" She pulled a soft jumper from her shoulder bag and carefully circled it around the animal, gently repositioning the broken bit and wrapping the jumper all the way around. "There. That's better, isn't it?" She thoughtfully looked down at her pained little bundle and came to a conclusion. "A bat," she stated. The broken wing was the obvious source of the pain, but there was something else, something very very wrong, with her new little bat friend. It seemed…sad maybe, and strangely dazed as well. If she didn't know any better…if she didn't know any better, she'd say it was the victim of a hollowing!

How exciting!

Wanting a closer look, Luna reached down to lift the snuggly wrapped animal from the forest floor. Immediately, it struggled to escape, letting loose a rather surprising cry, loud enough to actually hurt her ears. The fact that it was secured in soft wool didn't seem to deter its escape attempts in the least.

"There, there now," she said, moved by its obvious pain and fear to soothe it. "It'll be alright. I know it hurts but it's just a broken wing, and that's easily fixed. I'd just heal it now, but I don't think you'd be still long enough for me to look at it here. Besides, that wouldn't much help with your wrackspurt problem would it?"

The bat froze, almost as if it understood what she was saying. She smiled, wondered if that reaction actually originated from the wrackspurt inside the bat, wondered about how intelligent wrackspurts really were, and decided to add it to her study of the elusive creatures. If she took the bat home, not only would she be able to heal the poor little thing but she'd have an unparalleled opportunity to study the wrackspurt inside it.

What a delightfully unexpected ending to her adventure!

"Come on, little bat. Just come along home with me and I'll make everything better," she told it gently, lifting the creature into her bag and settling it carefully on top of the bag's other contents. She made sure it was secure and comfortable before lifting the bag back onto her shoulder and setting off for home.

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When the Loony girl finally took him from that dark, cramped bag and unwrapped the jumper from around him, Snape was ready for her. No sooner had the last of the soft wool fallen away than Bat-Snape was launching himself from her grasp. Unfortunately, he had temporarily forgotten his broken wing and his instincts had him spreading his wings to fly away. He gave a loud screech of pain as the broken pieces shifted against one another and then fell backwards onto the table.

"Oh you poor thing!" Loony exclaimed. "You really shouldn't move, you know. I have to fix that wing first."

_You should have done that in the forest, you stupid girl, instead of carting me around with damaged limbs!_ Snape snarled at her mentally.

"Here, let me see that." Loony pulled her wand from a hidden pocket and reached for Snape. She startled when he lurched toward her teeth first, but nimbly avoided his attempt to bite her and gently caught the end of his unbroken wing, much to Snape's frustration. He was so angry he actually tried to climb his own wing in a continued attempt to reach her, so she lifted the wing outward farther and aimed her wand at the damaged one. This made Snape rather frantic.

_Don't you point that thing at me!_ he cried, struggling wildly_. I bet you couldn't fix a broken vase; you think I'm going to let you near my bones? Get away!_

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The bat continued to struggle wildly in her hands. When her healing spell missed three times in a row due to his constant wiggling, and when he came so close to biting her she actually felt the gentle scrape of teeth along the heel of her hand, she sighed in frustration.

"I didn't want to do this," she told the creature, "but you won't quit moving and I have to fix your wing." She waved her wand, there was a tiny flash of red light, and then the bat went still and silent. His eyes seemed to glare at her accusingly. Luna shook her head. "You brought this on yourself, you know," she told him gently. "I told you to be still." The glare only seemed to intensify. Luna tilted her head to one side, tapped her chin with the end of her wand. "You remind me of someone. I think I shall call you Severus." With that, she went back to healing the wing.

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As light flashed around him and his bones began to knit themselves back together, the immobilized Snape mentally snarled and growled.

_Curse you, Dumbledore!_

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Snape, newly healed and granted his mobility once more, glared balefully through the bars of his cage. The Lovegood girl was sitting across the room in an overstuffed floral print wingback chair, her hair piled high on top of her head and held in place by a brightly colored quill and a short, gnarled stick she had informed him in her rambling way was a piece of Rowan, collected at midnight on the night of the full moon. It was, she had stated gravely, therefore full of magical properties that would help her think more clearly and protect her from the wrackspurt that had apparently invaded his head.

Snape could not believe this girl had ever been sorted into Ravenclaw, much less that she'd graduated from Hogwarts with full marks. For one thing, there was no way she'd ever passed herbology; if that twisted stick was Rowan, he'd eat his own wand. It was a bit of common oak if it was wood at all. Furthermore, there was not a thing wrong with him other than a broken wing and an infuriating inability to return to his natural form. The latter was, admittedly, worrisome, but Snape had full confidence in himself and his abilities as a wizard. He'd figure out how to transfigure himself back into a human, and when he did, he was going to hex the infuriating blond across the room into an unrecognizable shape just for the irritation she'd put him through. Then he would obliviate her, transfigure her into an eleven-year-old, and send her back to school in the hopes it might do some good this time.

And when next he saw that bumbling idiot Dumbledore he was going to hex first and question later.

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Luna, oblivious to the mental ravings of the person in bat's clothing across the room, was pouring over books and rolls of parchment, doing research. She had placed the bat inside a large cage she'd originally constructed and charmed for the purpose of containing nargles, but she figured it would do just as well to contain wrackspurts. Plus, decked out as it was like a little miniature forest (for the happiness of nargle infested mistletoe), it was rather perfect as the habitat of a recuperating bat.

Luna hummed thoughtfully. "How very strange." She slammed closed the heavy tome she had been reading and approached the bat cage. "It would seem you are an Egyptian fruit bat," she stated, peering at the bat half hidden amongst the foliage inside the cage. "Obviously you are not native to England or Scotland, so how did you get here?" She thought for a moment. "It must be the wrackspurt. You must have been hollowed in Egypt and the dizzying effect of the wrackspurt in your mind caused you to wander here. This is an amazing discovery; wrackspurts have never been documented in Egypt before! And there hollowing season must last a bit longer. Egypt is rather far away; you must have been carrying this wrackspurt quite a long while now."

Severus, wrapped in his wings in the depths of his cage, bared his tiny pointed teeth in irritation.

"At least now we know what you eat," the blond stated cheerfully. "I'll just nip into the kitchen and see what I can find for you, shall I? I'm sure you must be hungry after all the excitement of today."

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Snape, who refused to admit, even to himself, how hungry he really was (never mind the pain in his middle), only allowed himself to think about how satisfying it would be to sink his teeth into the girl's hand.

"What luck!" Loony exclaimed, coming back into the room with an armful of something that smelled sweet and made Snape's mouth water against his will. "Look, Severus! An orange and two bananas. Let's find out which you like better." She peeled a banana, cut the orange in half, and put half of the orange and the skinless banana in the cage with her new guest. Snape was so focused on the fruit that he forgot to try to bite the hand delivering it.

"There you go! Eat up!"

Snape crossed his wings more tightly about himself. _I_ hate _fruit._

"Come now, I know you must be starving." Loony began to peel the other half of the orange, filling the room with the sweet smell of citrus. "Mmmm," she sighed in pleasure, "this orange is reeeeeeally good."

_I don't eat fruit. I hate it. Hate it, do you hear me?_

She didn't seem to. She just kept sitting beside his cage, watching him as she ate her half of his orange.

"Hmmm." Loony stood from her chair. "Well, either you're not very hungry and you'll eat when you're hungrier or the wrackspurt is having some strange effect on your appetite. I'll just leave that there for you for now and I'll check on you in the morning."

Loony made her way out of the room, turning out the light as she went and humming tunelessly to herself as she headed up the stairs.

Left in the dark, Snape blinked giant black eyes. After several moments, he moved towards the fruit. Not because he was tempted beyond resistance by the smell, but because he refused to have any of his behavior attributed to wrackspurts. _Of all the ridiculous notions_, he thought, biting neatly into the banana with sharp teeth.

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Severus Bat had been with Luna for two weeks when she had her first human visitor. By then, Severus had stopped trying to bite her whenever she fed him, although he was still far too grumpy for a bat, even one with a wrackspurt infestation.

Egyptian wrackspurts must be really aggressive, she had decided, because English wrackspurts only made their victims dazed or confused, not unusually angry. She thought she had made progress connecting with the mythical creature inside the bat, however, because on day four, when the bat was clearly tired of being stuck in his cage but was still trying to bite her at every opportunity, she finally sat down beside the cage and had a little chat with her batty guest and the creature inside him.

"If you would only behave, I would let you out to fly around a bit." She told the bat with a sigh. When he stopped baring tiny teeth at her and seemed to go rather unnaturally still, she kept talking. "You'd have to promise not to escape, of course," she added. "There's no tropical fruit growing wild here, which is what you like best, and you still seem strangely unable to fend for yourself. You'd get eaten in a heartbeat. But if you could be polite and stop trying to chew my hand off, I think I could open this door and let you wander. What do you think?"

The bat just hung there, comfortably upside-down, wings wrapped tight around it, eyes closed, pretending to ignore her.

"Alright," she said, switching tactics. "You are a very strange wrackspurt, making your host so unhappy by keeping it locked in a cage, but I can't make you cooperate." She turned to leave, but the bat instantly set about screeching and crying until she came and sat down again. "You'll agree then?" The bat glowered at her, but slowly nodded its head once. "Good! That's much better. It's nice to know you can be reasoned with after all." She smiled beatifically, and opened the cage door. Instantly, the bat took to the air, fluttering about the room and landing every few feet on various bits of furniture.

That first day he stayed as far away from Luna as was possible. He stayed even further away after Luna commented on the fact that he didn't seem particularly skilled at flying, and how had he ever managed to get here from Egypt flying like that? After awhile, though, Severus flew about as he would without any regard whatsoever to where Luna was in the room. By the time she'd started brewing the calming draught that was meant to rid him of his wrackspurt infestation midway through the second week, the bat had taken to riding on her shoulder, clinging to her hair, ears, or clothing to stay in place and making loud, unintelligible statements about her potion making. It was an experimental variation of the usual potion, meaning she was working with some rather dangerous ingredients, and the bat seemed to have some strong opinions about how she dealt with…well, the entire process really.

She was only about halfway through the week-long brewing process when Ron, Hermione, Harry, Ginny, and Neville arrived at Luna's house for their monthly tea. Severus, who had been sitting on her shoulder with one clawed wingtip wrapped in her hair for balance when the bell rang, instantly flapped across the room in agitation and huddled on the bookshelf.

"You're still quite grumpy," she told him. "You should try to be nicer when our guests come in."

He snorted at her derisively, and she thought to herself that her Severus seemed every bit as antisocial as the original before she left to answer the door. She greeted her friends cheerfully, warned them about her resident wrackspurt, and showed her guests into the sitting room.

Upon seeing who was taking seats around the fireplace lit in one corner, Severus screeched angrily, launched himself into the air and shot through the open door of his cage, dive-bombing Harry's head on his way by.

"What in Merlin's name was that?" Ron exclaimed, staring at the cage with wide eyes.

Harry, looking startled and running his hands through his mussed hair, shook his head slowly. "Dunno, mate."

"I think it was a bat," said Ginny. "Luna?"

"It was Severus. Apparently he doesn't like you any better as a bat than he did as a professor, Harry."

"What?" five voices cried at once.

"Luna, Snape is dead," Ginny told the blond in a gentle voice.

"I know, Ginny. That wasn't Snape, it was Severus."

"Er…I don't get it," said Ron.

"I found him in the forest," Luna told them. "He had a broken wing, and he's been the victim of a hollowing."

"What's a hollowing?" asked Ron.

"Wrackspurt infestation," Neville explained. As Luna's best friend, he'd been fully exposed to all of her theories and beliefs.

"But that's an Egyptian fruit bat," said Hermione, peering through the bars of the cage. "How did an Egyptian fruit bat get here?"

"And why did you name it Severus?" Ron made a face of disgust. "Snape might not have been our enemy, like we thought, but he was still a right awful git."

"The wrackspurt confused it," Luna explained serenely. "I don't think it meant to come here." She shrugged.

"And the name?" Ron reminded her.

"When you get to know him, it's obvious that he's a Severus."

There was a moment of silence while that sunk in, then Luna watched her friends fall apart laughing.

"Because Snape used to swoop around like a giant bat?" Ron hooted.

"Or because he was grumpy and mean?" Ginny was laughing so hard, tears were sliding from the corners of her eyes.

Harry snickered. "If he knew you'd named a bat after him, Snape would go mental. He's probably rolling over in his grave as we speak"

There was an unhappy grunt of apparent agreement from the cage that set the whole group off again.

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The calming draught, when it was finished, worked to calm Severus down for about half a day. Then he was angry and aggressive all over again for having been forced to drink the stuff. This indicated to Luna that the wrackspurt problem was, well, still a problem. She went back to her research, and Severus went back to sulking.

When she pulled out another cauldron at the end of week four, Severus flew across the room to his usual spot on her shoulder without a sound.

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Snape could not for the life of him understand why he was still a bat. Every day, several times a day, he went through the steps his books had described as the method to be used to return to one's human form from one's animagus form, and every day it failed to work. He tried variations, skipping steps, spontaneously attempting the transition. Once, he even stole Lovegood's wand. Nothing seemed to work, and he was starting to feel desperate.

The longer he stayed a bat, the more he feared he was losing his mind.

He was starting to think that Lovegood might, despite her obvious insanity (_she and Dumbledore probably would have got on smashingly_, he thought wryly to himself), be rather intelligent under all that nonsense about nonexistent mythical creatures. She knew how to research and she was a fast study. She had taken his instruction while she had been brewing her calming draught without question (the part that concerned him was that she didn't seem to think it odd that she was receiving said instruction from a bat), and had consistently performed correctly after each correction he made. She was capable of being quiet and reading for long periods of time, but when the mood took her, she sometimes pointed out interesting things she had learned from her books, and he found there shared a similar interest in certain types of potions and plants, even a few non-magical subjects. And he was beginning to find her rather entertaining, Merlin help him!

Snape was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He swore vengeance of the worst sort on that interfering old man when next he died and headed for the afterlife.

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Luna had decided to try a variation of the wit-sharpening potion this time. As wrackspurts caused dizziness and confusion in their victims, it stood to reason that a potion that effectively sharpened one's ability to think might not only help the infested brain function better, but may even make that brain a less desirable host for the wrackspurt, driving it from the victim's mind entirely.

With this theory in mind, Luna set about strengthening the potion as much as possible, and adding a warding element that was normally used in potions meant to help those weak in Occlumency. She looked about for ingredients, found she was short on a few, and decided to go shopping.

Shopping for Luna, when it came to potions brewing (a subject of which she had always been secretly fond), actually meant a trip to Hogwarts. Neville was the assistant herbology professor and spent most of his time tending to plants, helping Professor Sprout grade papers, and teaching the first and second year herbology classes. So long as supplies were plentiful, Luna was usually allowed to raid the greenhouses for whatever she needed.

So Luna made a list of all the necessary ingredients that she was missing and copied her potion recipe over for Neville to look at, in case he wanted to offer ideas or suggestions. She dug out a bag and then found her cloak because it was usually cooler at Hogwarts than it was where she lived. When she deemed herself ready, she made her way to the door, only to be stopped by a loud screech and something brown and fuzzy flapping in her face. She had to cross her eyes just to see the bat clearly, and then she rolled them in amused exasperation.

"Now, Severus, I have to go out and get ingredients so I can make this potion to get rid of that rather tenacious wrackspurt you've been infested with. I can't do that if you're blocking the door." She deftly caught him from the air, plopped him down on a nearby shelf, and took a couple of steps towards the door. No sooner had she grasped the handle than the bat once again moved to stop her, this time latching on to the lintel of the door on one side, and the door itself on the other. He twisted his head up to look at her and screeched defiantly.

Luna studied the bat for a moment and then shook her head. "You can't come with me, Severus," she told him. "You are grumpy and mean when you interact with people." He screeched at her again, and she sighed. "Well, alright, but only if you can be civil. No more diving at peoples' heads or pulling their ears and whatnot." Severus had been less than welcoming when, the week after their monthly tea date, Harry and Ginny had come over for dinner. She'd actually had to lock Severus in his cage after he landed on Harry's shoulder and sharply pulled his ear with his teeth, apparently in retribution for the joking comment the man had made about Severus's name. Luna had then had to place a silencing charm on the cage before they could eat peacefully because he'd made such a fuss about his confinement.

Severus looked at her balefully for bringing that particular incident up, but Luna just shook her head. "It was too your fault. There was no reason to treat Harry that way. If you can't be nice, I can't take you out with me." The bat seemed to think about it for a moment, then flew down into her bag.

"Does that mean you can be nice?" No answer. Taking this for agreement, Luna nodded and once and left the house.

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_Anything to get out of this tiny excuse for a house_, Snape thought to himself, wiggling down into a more comfortable position at the bottom of the Loony girl's bag, _even if it means enduring a trip to Hogwarts and a conversation with that nitwit, Longbottom_.

To begin with, their Hogwarts trip wasn't too bad. Snape stayed hidden at the bottom of the bag until the girl entered the greenhouse, so he avoided seeing anything that might cause some of his more unpleasant memories to surface. And once in the greenhouse, Snape had more room to practice flying than he'd had since the first day of his transformation, when he'd utterly failed in his attempt to do so. Now that he knew what he was doing with his wings, he reveled in the ability this form gave him to flit through the air, to fly and to land wherever he liked, and to view things from a theretofore unseen perspective. Things were very bright in the day, but he'd gotten used to the change in his vision by now and while he still preferred the night, he could see well enough in daylight. And his new sense of smell was amazing!

He spent several surprisingly contented hours in the greenhouse, first flitting about in exploration and then preventing Lovegood from choosing inferior potions ingredients. It wasn't until Longbottom entered the greenhouse that things took a downward turn.

Part of the problem was that Snape had never been fond of Longbottom. He was willing to (grudgingly) admit that Longbottom had comported himself in a competent fashion in the year that Snape had taken control of Hogwarts and then in the battle that followed, but being brave and rebellious had little to do with intelligence and ability to carry out everyday tasks, and Snape still had his doubts as to the boy's abilities in that regard. More importantly, everything about the boy irritated Snape. So he grumpily sat and ignored the conversation occurring between the two young people, right up until Longbottom's chubby, dirt stained hand dared to _touch_ him.

"He really is very cute, your new pet," Longbottom was saying as he stroked the bat gently, "and much better behaved then the last time I—"

At which point Snape flung himself from Lovegood's shoulder with a screech and flew in Longbottom's face, clawed feet extended and teeth bared_. I am not a pet you worthless, foolish excuse for a human! I am a grown man, more intelligent than you by far, and capable of casting upon you hexes and curses more horrible and awful than any you have ever encountered if you even think of trying to pet me with your fat, grubby hand_—

And then there was a flash of red and Snape was falling from the air, silenced.

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Luna caught the stunned bat easily, then gently laid him, outstretched, on top of the ingredients in her bag.

"I told you you could only come out with me if you could be nice," she told him, disappointed. "There is no excuse for treating people the way you do and Neville attempting to pet you is not a good reason for you to attack him. There are consequences for cruelty, Severus Bat, and yours is to lay there and think about how to behave more civilly."

"Um, Luna," Neville gently interjected, "he's just a bat. I don't think he can understand you."

"Of course he can, Neville, don't be silly. He's very intelligent."

Neville smiled and shook his head. "Okay, Lu."

The two parted ways after only a little conversation, and Luna carried her burden home.

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Luna decided that Severus was to be grounded indefinitely after the fiasco with Neville at Hogwarts. She kept him in his bat cage for the rest of the day after they returned home, and after that, only let him out into the sitting room for short periods of time.

"Until you can properly apologize, I can't trust you to be out and about unsupervised," she told him the first time he protested at being put back in his cage. "If you can't apologize, it's because you can't understand that you've done something wrong, and if you can't understand the difference between right and wrong, then you can't be trusted not to do the wrong things when I'm not watching you. So in you go." And she'd shut the door and left the room without even glancing back. When he screeched in anger, she only silenced him, or his cage. When he bit or scratched, she would stun him and put him back in the cage anyway. She was merciless in her insistence that he learn to be polite.

"If you're nice to others, they'll be nice to you. That's how you make friends," was her mantra.

Then one day, when he quietly, gently, protested going back in his cage at the end of the day, she asked him if he was ready to apologize, and something amazing happened. He didn't screech at her. He didn't bite or scratch. He didn't try to fly away, or deny her words, or hide on the top shelf of the bookcase. He just sat in the palm of her hand, clawed feet and wingtips wrapped around her fingers, and hung his head.

"Is that a yes?" she whispered.

No response.

"Oh, Severus!" she cried, ecstatic. I'm so happy you're finally willing to be nice! It was so hard putting you back in that cage day after day. Let's go tell Neville right now!"

With no further ado, Luna grabbed her wand and Apparated them both to the gates of Hogwarts. A quick jaunt across the grounds and up a few staircases to the faculty hallway, and Luna was pounding on Neville's door. It was two in the morning, but Neville was very sweet and understanding, she was sure that he wouldn't mind getting out of bed so that Severus could apologize.

Several minutes later, a very sleepy Neville dressed in red-striped flannel pajamas and a matching red sleep cap answered the door.

"Luna?" he asked around a yawn. "Are you okay? What's going on?"

"Oh, Neville, I'm fantastic!" she exclaimed. "It's just that Severus is finally ready to apologize for how he treated you a couple of weeks ago. I've been asking him to do it for ages and he's finally decided he's sorry, so of course I had to bring him right over."

She shoved her hand, bat still cupped in her palm, under Neville's nose. "See?"

"Luna," Neville paused, looking bemused. Cautiously he asked, "Lu, he can't talk. How's he supposed to apologize?"

"Hmmm, I suppose you have a point." She considered the problem a moment, then lit upon the perfect solution. "You could try to pet him again."

"I could try to—Luna do you really think that's the best…" he trailed off when he caught her eye, apparently noticing that she was rather upset with the way that particular question was headed. If he would only try to pet Severus, he would see; she wouldn't ask him to do it if it wasn't the best way!

"Alright," Neville sighed. Luna grinned at him, carefully disentangled Severus from her fingers, and gently dropped the bat into Neville's open palm. Both bat and boy froze. When Severus didn't immediately attack him, Luna's smile widened impossibly and Neville sighed a second time.

"Alright," he repeated. He reached out with one clean, gentle finger and swept it down the bat's furry spine. The bat's only reaction was a tiny, seemingly resigned sigh. Neville smiled a little. "I know exactly what you mean," he whispered to the animal, "she has a way of making everyone feel like that from time to time."

Luna smiled absently and pretended not to have heard him. After a moment, Neville offered the bat back to her. "Here, Lu," he said. "I think we've tested him enough tonight. He's obviously sorry, and I forgive him, so you'd best take him back now."

She took her furry guest back from her friend, and waved happily. "Goodnight, Neville. Sleep well!"

"Night, Lu," he replied, yawning again, and turned back into his room.

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When Severus had been with her for four months (and had survived four monthly tea parties, during three of which he behaved politely), Luna finally hit on what she thought was the perfect combination of potions to solve Severus's wrackspurt problem. She'd been brewing and then tossing variation after variation, but none had seemed quite right. Several of them had Severus screeching in alarm and practically flying the brew into a rubbish bin himself. Others just looked or smelled off, and she knew instinctively that they would fail. The last batch had been good enough that she'd tested it herself to observe the effects before giving it to Severus, which she had decided not to do until she'd made a few adjustments.

But this, this was the perfect batch. She tested it again, just to be sure, before pouring a very carefully measured dose and feeding it to her batty friend.

"There you are, Severus," she told him when he'd drunk it all (after a token glare and much careful sniffing). "That should get rid of that wrackspurt for good. Its hold has been slipping over the past few weeks, I think, but this should finish it off completely. By morning you should be wrackspurt free!" She smiled at him, petted the top of his head with one fingertip, and then skipped off to bed, whistling her father's favorite Celestina Warbeck song and leaving the bat alone in the dark for the night with only his clarified thoughts to keep him company.

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In the darkness of the room, Snape-as-a-bat could still see perfectly clearly. And for the first time since becoming a bat, he was able to see past his confusion and the oddness of his situation and _think_ clearly. He did not have a wrackspurt infestation, whatever Luna might think, but he would take advantage of the clarity of thought granted by the potion to rethink his transformation problem.

He had not been able to transform back into himself. Why?

The steps for animagus transfiguration were thus: 1) clear your mind. 2) focus on your true self. 3) will that truth into physical manifestation. 4) speak, or think, the appropriate incantation. 5) _be_ yourself.

Night after night, Severus had followed these instructions in an attempt to return to his human form, and night after night he had failed. After long hours of careful consideration, he came to the following realizations as to why that might be:

1) He had followed the same steps, day after day, in order to transform into his current bat form. The same. Exact. Steps. Because:

2) The steps for animagus transfiguration were the same in _either direction_!

He had been focusing on his "true self" by picturing his human self in his mind. But that wasn't what that meant at all, otherwise no one would ever be able to transform into an animal to begin with. When one began to study animagus transfiguration, one did not know one's animal form until the first transformation. It came into being the first time by focusing on one's true self, which dictated the type of animal best suited to the person transforming.

To change back, he needed to focus not on his mental image of his physical appearance, but on who he was. So who was he?

He was grumpy and rude, but he knew how to be civil, how to be kind, and how to apologize when his rudeness was unwarranted. He knew how to cast the worst curses, to torture and kill, to maim and destroy, but he knew how to treat something fragile with tenderness and care, to control his actions with the strength of his will, to endure what once was unendurable, and to think of what reactions might be caused by actions that he took. He was exacting, demanding, and driven, but no longer cruel, unreasonable, or completely without patience. He did not suffer fools gladly, but he no longer considered the world to be full of only fools. He was his own worst enemy, but those who mattered didn't view him with enmity as he viewed himself.

He was grateful for second chances, and for the interfering old men who loved him enough to make him take them.

He had at least one friend. He rather thought he might like to try being a friend in return.

With a sigh, Snape thought the proper words and felt himself begin to change. By the time the sun spread gentle fingers of pink and gold across the sky, Severus Bat was gone.

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If Luna was surprised to find him in her sitting room the next morning, he couldn't tell it from her reaction.

"Professor Snape, how lovely to see you!" She greeted him with a sunny smile, then offered him tea and didn't give him the chance to refuse it. When they were both comfortably ensconced in two of the cushy armchairs by the fire, Luna sipped her tea and peered about the room curiously. "Have you seen Severus anywhere about?"

"Severus?"

"Yes, my batty friend. I've been helping him with a wrackspurt problem. I think we finally cured it yesterday, but now I can't find him anywhere to verify it."

"Perhaps, now that he feels better, he simply went home."

"It's possible, I suppose, but that would hardly be polite of him. After all the time he spent with me, learning kindness and friendship, I would expect more from him than a silent disappearance."

"Friendship? With a bat?"

"Friendship with everyone really," she said simply. "And he's a nice bat."

"If you are truly his friend, then I am sure you will see him again."

"Do you think so? That's a nice thought. I would like it if he came to visit me occasionally."

They sat in silence together for several minutes while they finished their tea. When his cup was finally empty, Snape stood from his chair.

"Are you leaving, Professor?"

"Yes, I think it's time I was on my way. I have a garden at home that needs tending."

Luna stood as well, walking him to the door. "Professor, I recently created a potion for curing wrackspurt infestations that I'd like to market. It seemed to be extremely effective in Severus's case, and I would like to make it available to others with similar afflictions. Since you're a potions expert, I thought you might be able to review the potion and advise me on what I should do next to get it approved for sale and distribution. If it's not too much trouble, perhaps you could come by to discuss it next week over tea?"

"Perhaps I shall," he murmured, stepping over the threshold into the bright autumn sun. He left the porch, then turned, looked back over his shoulder at the girl still standing in the doorway. "And Luna?"

"Yes, Professor Snape?"

"You can call me Severus."


End file.
